INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Indian captain Gill has held one end up to the frustration of England © Getty
Yashasvi Jaiswal (87) missed out on a century but India built solidly to go to Tea at 182 for 3 in an attritional afternoon session on the opening day of the second Test in Birmingham. The India opener, alongside skipper Shubman Gill (42*) did well to continued to build a strong foundation through the first half but Ben Stokes returned to break the 66-run partnership against the run of play, in what was the only moment of success for the hosts in the second session.
Gill and Jaiswal did well to negotiate the England attack for the first hour. The bowlers’ discipline and a spread-out field cut down on the flow of boundaries that the latter half of the morning session saw. The hosts brought back Woakes and Carse in tandem once again after Lunch, and even though the scoring rate remained low, the conditions had eased out for batting. While Gill remained watchful at the start, Jaiswal continued to feast on the occasional wayward freebies England dished out.
The Carse vs Gill battle heated up when the Indian captain pulled out ahead of a delivery mid-over, and culminated into a passionate LBW call that the hosts took upstairs, only to realise the inside edge had saved the batter. In the following over, Woakes decided against referring an appeal and rightly so, for there was a faint inside edge once more to Gill’s rescue.
Wicketless after more than an hour of toil, Stokes reintroduced himself into the attack and got England the breakthrough they’d grown desperate for. Completely against the run of play, Jaiswal slashed at a short and wide delivery and ended up bottom-edging it behind to miss out by 13 runs on what would have been a well-deserved hundred.
Rishabh Pant, quite characteristically, went after the spinner Shoaib Bashir for a six over long-on when the opportunity presented itself just before Tea, but had otherwise remained mindful of the opposition throughout his brief stay of 14 not out.
Brief scores: India 182/3 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 87, Shubman Gill 42*; Ben Stokes 1-33) vs England
© Cricbuzz
